To think people need to stop comparing the UK and New Zealand?

[RaspberryCoulis]

We have a population of 66.5 million, they have 4.9 million.

We have an area of 240,000 sq km, they have 270,000 sq km. (So less than 10% of the population in a bigger area).

Their biggest city has 1.5 million people. London has 9 million people. Their next biggest city, Christchurch, is smaller than Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh and Leicester.

And they're 2000 miles from their nearest big neighbour. (Australia). We're joined onto one country (Ireland) and 2000 miles from London takes in all of Western Europe, Iceland, a good chunk of Eastern Europe and a bit of North Africa.

So can we stop with the silly comparisons now?

I've never compared the UK with New Zealand and not known anyone who has. What's the point? It's a different country, spread out, with a smaller and generally less dense population.

@jessstan1

I've never compared the UK with New Zealand and not known anyone who has. What's the point? It's a different country, spread out, with a smaller and generally less dense population.

The comparison is widely reported.

I do think the comparisons are ridiculous. However they shut their borders extremely quickly, what will happen when they reopen them ? They can't stay closed forever.

It's a different country, spread out, with a smaller and generally less dense population.

Are you suggesting that uk residents are dense or just the politicians

@twistedsistersocks the border will be opened when the vaccine has been administered to as many as possible.

@twistedsistersocks

It's a different country, spread out, with a smaller and generally less dense population.

Are you suggesting that uk residents are dense or just the politicians

:-). Brilliant!

I do think the comparisons are ridiculous. However they shut their borders extremely quickly, what will happen when they reopen them ? They can't stay closed forever

They are holding out for when they can vaccinate. As they are reasonably self sufficient in the first place, and are prepared continue indefinitely the quarantine of goods, they're Ok for however long it takes.

I do however feel for the more cut off residents if the small Pacific islands, who are just as cut off, but less able to maintain safe links.

But I am no longer surprised by this sort of comparison being 'widely reported' on both MSM and SM, as there are plenty of people who don't know even the basics of public health and who won't have seen the (many) previous discussions

To the PP who mentioned Scott Morrison- he hasn't really been running the show at a ground level. The state premiers have been much more forceful, in particular Gladys for NSW and Anastasia for QLD. Again two strong female leaders who have communicated well and are doing the right thing for their people.
@mbosnz as a fellow kiwi I love your posts. You sum it up so well.

Temperature and humidity are huge drivers of flu transmission, so we can assume it is the same for coronaviruses. Hence why Europe is being hit hard now, you can see the effects of seasonality in the USA as well.

We are hitting a perfect storm of cold weather, low humidity, indoors is especially dry due to central heating. As a nation we have low vit D especially in winter. We are a densely populated and internationally connected country. Add in obesity and an aging population we were always going to take a hard battering in the winter. The most competent leader would have struggled to keep our rates down. I would have expected a competent leader to prepare for the inevitable though.

I can't think of any country we can accurately compare too.

I think the only valid point of comparison is the UK has a leader incapable of making decisions,while for NZ it is the reverse.

I think they've done well, and I'd far rather be there than here atm! Having said that, in normal times I'd much rather live in the UK. We are where we are, no point in flagellating ourselves over it.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but sometimes I wonder why the UK, Germany and the US have this virus worse than smaller, globally more insignificant countries. There must be a link.

It would be fairer to compare the UK to the US. Both have high levels of immigration, both import and export an awful lot, both have governments that many people believe incompetent, and both have a large percentage of the population who are unwilling to follow the rules/believe Covid is a hoax.

If you make that comparison, the UK comes off quite well!

@EugenesAxe

Yes! It's bloody ridiculous all this pearl clutching and questioning of 'Why can't Boris be more like Jacinda?' - well OK, he could have been a lot better, but to talk of us 'shutting our borders' is insane! I expect 99% of the time you fly in to NZ to go to NZ. You can fly in to the UK to go to shit loads of other places.

People fly to NZ to connect to Fiji, Rarotonga, Tonga, New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, French Polynesia and Vanuatu.

Shutting our borders has been hard for all of these countries. Covid would have been a lot worse.

'I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but sometimes I wonder why the UK, Germany and the US have this virus worse than smaller, globally more insignificant countries. There must be a link.'

Yes I wonder that too, it's almost as if it's designed to hit certain economies harder. But no, it's all down to leadership apparently.

Sure the UK has a bigger and denser population, but I think for all of us in larger countries we should stop saying “NZ is insignificant and only succeeded because it is small and naturally isolated” and reframe it as “Hmm, small and isolated NZ succeeded. What could we adopt from their situation and approach to help us save lives?”

I’m laughing at the countries that have dealt with it best have women leaders! I’m in Scotland and NS sent all the old people from cottage hospitals to care homes without testing etc so it spread like wildfire through the care homes and then there was the Nike conference......

Yes, aware that NZ has a more spread out population, but they had a leader that took the virus seriously and didn't go about shaking hands with Covid patients. 🙄.
They shut their borders early and made everyone coming into the country self isolate for 14 days at their own expense. They also didn't have a segment if the population that complained like petty children and got on with it.

If you don't want to compare NZ, you could look at the Isle of Man.

'both have a large percentage of the population who are unwilling to follow the rules/believe Covid is a hoax.'

Also yes, I agree with this. Look at mn, there was a huge amount of 'I will not have my civil liberties curtailed!' threads.

Some seem to want Johnson to fix it while not changing their behaviour at all and look where that has got us.

'I’m laughing at the countries that have dealt with it best have women leaders! I’m in Scotland and NS sent all the old people from cottage hospitals to care homes without testing etc '

Nicola has done it right because she has the msm on her side. Its baffling to watch her getting praise for actually doing much worse considering she has a v small 5m pop country.

They shut their borders early

To be specific, in mid March.

It's a perfectly valid comparison. They have a decent leadership that did what needed to be done. We don't and didn't.

Plenty of other nations with higher population density did as well.

Your precious tory govt are ruthlessly incompetent. That's your problem. No amount of bleating about unfair comparisons changes that.

Germany sadly 1200 deaths yesterday and they have a very capable government with the much feted (on mn) female leader.

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

It’s mid-summer in NZ right now so it will interesting to see what happens there when winter falls regarding new cases and has the more easily transmitted variant arrived there yet?

I wonder what the Press/media is like in New Zealand.

the Press here has been nothing short of shameful. And as for social media... When this whole thing started I agree that borders should have been closed/flights stopped straightaway - but oh, no. "Racist!!!!" was the cry about stopping flights from China. And then "Restrictions to freedom!" about skiing trips to Italy.

Anyone remember the couple stuck on the cruise ship in Japan? They and their family were bleating about being quarantined abroad and the son was on breakfast tv asking for Air Force 1 to fetch them!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and maybe we would have been better off with closed borders, but at the time there would have been outrage.

It's a different country, spread out, with a smaller and generally less dense population.

I'm so pleased to know we are less dense. Cheers me up no end.